


The embarrassment hauntings

by CGAdam



Category: No Fandom, Ringu | The Ring - All Media Types, The Grudge - All Versions
Genre: Gen, Ghosts, haunted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-26
Updated: 2015-02-26
Packaged: 2018-03-15 08:21:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3440207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CGAdam/pseuds/CGAdam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All his life, it appeared at his worst possible moments.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The embarrassment hauntings

Little Timmy looked up at his father, dark eyes welling up with tears. "I... I'm sorry, daddy! I just couldn't hold it!"

Timmy's father sighed and pulled the yellowed sheets off the bed. "How many times is this now, son? You need to man up! You need to grow out...of..."

Timmy stared at his father, watching his eyes grow wider and rounder. His mouth dropped open, and a low, rasping keen echoed up from somewhere deep in his stomach. Timmy tipped his head sideways, confused, and saw that daddy had suddenly had an accident all his own. "Daddy? Are you okay?"

His father pointed to something over Timmy's head, and he turned.

The figure hung crouched in the corner of the room, black, straggly hair barely concealing gray, ashen skin. It croaked out a horrible, rattling sound, and Timmy screamed.

When his aunt found them both, clinging to each other and shaking, neither of them talked about Timmy's little nighttime accident, and his father never yelled again.

* * *

Tim stood before his classmates, the paper in his hand crinkling as he toyed nervously with his book report. Thirty sets of eyes stared up at him, running over his clothes, his hair, searching for everything they could possibly use to torment him with this moment later. His throat felt like it had a rock lodged it in, and his mouth felt like he'd eaten a sponge for lunch.

"Well, go ahead, Tim," the teacher prompted kindly. "Go ahead and start your report."

Tim nodded, cleared his throat and began. "My book report is about my favorite book, 'Winnie the Pooh and-"

" _Winnie the pooh?!_ " Janet screeched. "You like that _baby's_ book?!"

The class joined Janet in her mocking laughter, and even the teacher couldn't bring them to order fast enough. Tim stood, frozen before the class, eyes welling up with tears.

And then the laughter stopped.

Tim heard it. That rattling sound, like wind being sucked through a pipe with something banging against the opening. The sound dripped down from over his head, washing into sixty terrified ears.

Janet screamed first, and the rest of the class seconds later.

When the principal and the rest of the school staff finally managed to calm and corral the panicked third graders, no one mentioned Tim's book report.

* * *

T-Mack ('Timothy', what a dumb name, he'd never forgiven his father for cursing him with it) grinned at Cindy as he brushed her hair away from her face. "You know, you are one seriously smokin' babe."

She gave him that grin, the million dollar smile that made every jock in school weak in the knees and rigid somewhere else. "And you are one _fine_ man." She nibbled the tip of a finger. "We gonna get this started or what?"

"Oh, you bet!" T-Mack did his best to struggle out of his pants without kicking Cindy or looking too eager. It wasn't easy, given that his old hatchback wasn't the roomiest car in the world, but he managed it. He had the hottest cheerleader in school for motivation.

As he got his shirt off and pants down to knee level, he saw Cindy hadn't started to remove her own clothing. "What's the matter, baby?"

"There's just not enough _space_ in here," she pouted. "Would you mind stepping outside for a minute? Just so I can... _stretch_ a little?"

T-Mack hesitated, a dim warning bell going off in the back of his mind. Still, his brain wasn't exactly making all the decisions at that point, so he opened the door and stepped outside, pants still around his ankles.

The car door _thunked_ shut behind him, followed by the fainter _click_ of the door lock. A blaze of headlights lit the forest clearing, and T-Mack stood exposed before the entire football team and cheer squad. "Hey, check it out!" someone jeered. "Looks like Cindy scared ol' T-Mack here right out of his own car!"

Riotous, jeering laughter filled the air. T-Mack felt a flush of heat all over his body, a creeping sense of dread... and just a touch of anticipation.

He looked over his shoulder, back through his car's windows.

Cindy was staring out at him, pointing and laughing at his frustrated lust. Her laughter turned to shrieks of terror as a mass of stringy black hair suddenly lashed around her face and wasted hands clawed at her throat.

T-Mack stepped aside as Cindy managed to open the car door and bolt outside. He calmly pulled up and rebuttoned his pants as the rasping, nightmarish figure billowed out into the dark forest, racing across the football team's pick-ups, Mustangs, and motorcycles. He folded his arms and watched as the specter reduced the entire sports team to terrified, gibbering heaps.

No one at school ever mentioned their prank on T-Mack or tried another one on him.

* * *

Timothy took a deep breath and opened his laptop, hooking it to the meeting room projector. This was it. After weeks of preparation, his big presentation to the board. This was truly _it_ , the moment he made his name at the company and propelled himself up the ranks.

Until he booted up the program and found his precious little four-year-old daughter had deleted his entire slideshow.

As Timothy stood there before the most senior members of his company, blank screen behind him, cheeks burning and hearing the faintest sounds of suppressed laughter from the less mature in the room, he sighed resignedly. "Here we go again."

Three senior board members died from heart attacks that day. Two more quit without explanation, and the last one was left a stammering, petrified husk of himself that never left home without a rosary and a bottle of holy water.

All the vacancies made it very simple for Timothy to move up in the company.

* * *

Two years after making Senior VP, Timothy stared down at the ground. "Okay, listen," he sighed. "It's Sarah's school play today. She's going to embarrass me, but it's a _good_ embarrassment. You don't need to show up this time."

Timothy knelt down and pulled a few of the weeds away from the gravestone. "I know you love me, but there's nothing to protect me from this time. Got it?"

It might have just been the wind, but Timothy thought he heard the sound of a distant rattle. Smiling slightly, he laid a bouquet of flowers on the headstone, then turned and walked to his car.

He didn't read the words engraved on the stone. He knew them by heart: **Hitomi Saunders, Beloved Wife and Mother**.

Below that, _I am always with you when you need me._


End file.
